Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Reaction & Review | Digimon Adventure tri.: Confession

 Shout! Factory and Toei Animation Present English Dub Premiere Screening of  “Digimon Adventure Tri. – CONFESSION” at Anime Expo 2017! - Anime Expo

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering the third entry in the "Digimon Adventure tri." saga. It came out in 2016. That movie is "Digimon Adventure tri.: Confession".

Now, similar to the other two "Digimon Adventure tri." films that I've covered this month, I don't know a thing about this movie. I know that it's the third entry, and that's about it. I also know that it's going to continue on where it left off from "Determination", and I'm hoping that this movie is going to be great. Part of the reason I say that is because "Determination" didn't really have a whole lot of story. While it did have writing that was a throwback to the first season of Digimon's writing, the quality of the storytelling really took a drop in quality. Hopefully, this third entry will improve on that immensely.

Honestly, I don't know what to expect from this thing. But considering that I go into most of these Reaction & Reviews as blind as possible, it's par for the course for this series. The only thing I am expecting from this movie, and probably the other 3 films in this series, is for the CG to be absolutely terrible. The first two movies had god awful CG, and I am expecting more of the same for this one. But who knows? Maybe the CG has improved here. It's kinda doubtful, but I'm still gonna hold out hope. So the only way I'm gonna know if this thing is gonna be any good, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Digimon Adventure tri.: Confession".

10 minutes later

All right, this is kinda bugging me slightly. So it's possible for the Digimon companions to Mega Digivolve, as was seen in the previous two "Digimon Adventure tri." films. My question is why couldn't they do that back in the first season of Digimon? Because it was possible for Matt and Tai's Digimon to Warp Digivolve. I understand it's a completely different form of digivolution, but my question still stands. Why couldn't the other DigiDestined's Digimon have the ability to digivolve even further back during the first season? Why did it have to be restricted to just Matt and Tai? I understand it's a completely trivial thing to be bitching about, and it has nothing to do with the movie, but it's just something that kinda came to me, you know?

15 minutes later

OK, I have a question. So Patamon, which is T.K.'s Digimon, has been infected. Now we don't know WHEN he got infected or how long. But if he's been infected, and the other Digimon have been inside Izzy's little computer world; including Patamon, then wouldn't the other Digimon have already been infected, too? I'm kinda hoping that the movie will attempt to explain some of this, because, right now, I'm kinda lost here.

4 minutes later

Wait, wait, hold on a fucking second here! So the DigiDestined know full well that there is a possibility that their Digimon could become infected, if they try to take them home. Yet, just a short while ago, Patamon bit T.K in the arm, while he was infected. Why is T.K. not telling them this? I understand he's worried about Patamon being homesick without his partner around, but it just screams stupidity on T.K.'s part. On top of that, they are going to take their Digimon back to their homes. And they're doing this without consulting Izzy about it first. I understand that Izzy's not the leader of the DigiDestined, but I would still, at least, ask Izzy to see if it's OK with him, so that they can let him know if something goes wrong with their Digimon. Guys, the writing in this thing is starting to bug me slightly, and I'm hoping that it's not gonna be a detriment to the rest of the film.

19 minutes later

So hold on a fucking second here. So this "reboot" is going to turn back time in the Digital World, only if the infected Digimon are gone from the real world. So basically, everything that happened in the first two seasons of Digimon will have been erased. So that means the battles against Devimon, Myotismon, and the Dark Masters, will have not happened. At least, that's what I'm getting from this officer's theory. Now, I could be totally wrong on that part, but if her theory about this "reboot" is true, then it's possible that all of those battles I've just mentioned are going to be completely erased. Guys, the writing in this thing is starting to hurt my brain, and I'm getting a little depressed by that.

19 minutes later

Guys, I know I've already touched upon this in the previous review, but I need to reiterate this point again. So, Gatomon just digivolved into Angewomon. And during that sequence, her digivolution was not in CG. The other two, both being Greymon and Ikakkumon, were in CG. Why are these movies still using these god awful CG digivolutions, when the non-CG digivolutions look great?! Again, I totally understand that I'm probably beating a dead horse by mentioning it here, but I really am still baffled by how awful the CG is for these sequences.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Digimon Adventure tri.: Confession". I'm gonna...shut that off...dear lord. I'm sorry, guys, but I'm trying to process the ending to that. Without going into spoilers, I will say that one part of that ending makes no fucking sense. And I would be here for hours discussing all of questions I had regarding that part of the ending. However, I am not going to do that. I'm gonna talk about the rest of the movie, and just leave the ending for what it is. It just makes no fucking sense to me.

Now, setting aside that, let's talk about the writing. Now, when compared to the previous "Digimon Adventure tri." film, which was "Determination", this movie definitely has more of a story. And I will say that there definitely is more going on here, when "Determination" didn't really have much of a story. I will also say that it does have some of the corny writing that I would hear in the first season of Digimon. So, on that end, at least this movie was able to retain some of that goofiness here. That being said, though, this movie has a ton of logic issues. For instance, why did T.K. withhold the fact that Patamon was infected from the others? Well, on two or three occasions, he says that he was afraid of fighting Patamon if his Digimon were to go berserk. But it still makes no sense for him to do this because if he had brought this up to everyone earlier on in the movie, then Izzy, who has been tirelessly working on his computer throughout the first half of the movie, could've worked up a plan on how to fix the infected Digimon sooner. But no. He withholds this information throughout most of the movie, up until towards the end when Meicoomon, who has been infected by this point, appears again. Now, Patamon actually tells the other Digimon about him being infected. But rather than than go tell Izzy about this, after they sneak off from where they're suppose to be safe, they decide that if they end up getting rebooted and lose their memories in the process, then they want to spend as much time with their partners as much as possible. I'm gonna get more into that "reboot" shit in a moment. But anyway, the fact that neither T.K. or the rest of the Digimon tell Izzy about this comes across as rather stupid. And I know that T.K. is smarter than this, because I've seen what he did in the first two seasons. Why is he withholding such viable information about Patamon being infected, when it could've possibly been fixed earlier? Honestly, it makes T.K. kind of an idiot. And again, I wish he would've said something about this sooner. Now, I will say that there is one moment in the movie where T.K. and Patamon are together in his room. And the scene they share together is a bit heart-wrenching, and it might bring you a couple of tears. It almost did for me, but it really is one of the better moments of this movie. So it's a rather give-and-take. It was a really stupid moment for T.K. to not say anything about Patamon being infected, but the scene they have after that is rather heart-wrenching.

So, let's talk about this "reboot". Now I'm not gonna dig too deep into this "Quantum C" bullshit that the movie brings up, because most of it almost makes no sense. So, at one point, Kari gets a call from her cell phone, despite the fact that she turned it off. And then she suddenly goes into a daze as soon as she answers it and just walks mindlessly in the school hall. Then she ends up reuniting with the Digimon, after Patamon reveals to them that he's been infected. Now, it's been revealed that Kari's body has been possessed by some deity. And this isn't the first time that this has happened. A little bit of a spoiler, but in the first season of the show, after Kari joins the DigiDestined to save the Digital World, there was maybe, like, one or two instances where Kari's body was possessed by this deity. Now I don't remember if it's this same deity that possesses Kari in this movie, but I'm not gonna worry about that here. Anyway, she tells them that the only way to save the Digimon that are being infected is to start up a "reboot", and it would involve a great sacrifice. A great sacrifice of what? I don't know. I'm going to assume it's the Digimon companions losing their memories once the "reboot" happens, but the movie was sorta vague on that, so I don't know if that's what it was meaning. And then shortly after that, Agent Himekawa, who's name I kept forgetting that I had to look it up on how to spell it, catches Kari from collapsing, after the deity leaves her body. So, here's where this part makes no sense to me. Agent Himekawa says that the "reboot" might have to go through and it's a possibility that the Digital World would go back in time in order for the "reboot" to happen. Now again, I could be completely wrong on this, and it might just be bullshit on my end. And if it is, then so be it. I'm sure someone who has seen these movies will correct me on this. But just for the hell of it, I'm gonna bring it up again, anyways. So, if the Digital World ends up going back in time, does that mean that all of the battles that went on from seasons 1 and 2 of Digimon will have been erased? If so, then what comes of Devimon, Myotismon, the Dark Masters, Arukenimon and Mummymon; which were recurring villains from the latter portion of season 2. What happens to all of them? Are they also going to become fragments of lost memories from the "reboot"? Or are they just data that never gets reproduced after the "reboot" happens? Guys, I'm gonna tell you, a lot of what I just said probably makes no sense to you. Especially if you're someone who has never seen Digimon. So I'm going to say this. If you can turn off your brain, and not think about anything of what I just mentioned, then you're probably going to enjoy this thing immensely. Because if you go into this movie, and you start to think about all of the logic issues that this thing has, then you're probably going to get turned off by this movie, because it has a ton of logic issues that don't make a whole lot of sense.

So the writing here is kind of a mixed bag. And if I had more time to talk about that ending, then I would be here for hours discussing things that makes no sense to me. But anyways, let's get to the acting. In real honestly, most of the acting is fine. It's the same kind of acting from the previous two films. So if you got use to the acting there, then you're probably going to get into this English dub with no problems. However, there is one voice that I noticed that kind of bugged me. Well two, technically. One of them has to do with whoever voiced Angemon, which is the Champion level of Patamon. For whatever reason, his voice is definitely off here. And it doesn't sound anything like his original voice actor from the first season. Now I'm not saying it has to be exactly like the first season, but whoever they got to voice Angemon sounds really wooden. And it kinda took me out of the movie a bit. Speaking of wooden, there's one actor from this movie who seems to have gotten lazy. And it's whoever voiced Nishijima, which I believe was Matt and Tai's High School teacher. Somehow, between the first two "Digimon Adventure tri,." movies and this one, the guy who voices him really sounded like he just phoned it in and did not fucking care. Now granted, it's not something most people would notice, but it was something that caught my attention. So, you just have to take it for what it's worth. Beyond the couple of bits of wooden acting, the rest of the acting is rather decent, so I can't really complain too much.

Animation here, once again, is great. And by that, I mean the art style is really good. But then again, most of it is what was in the previous two films, so it's to be expected here. And, as I sadly predicted, the terrible CG is also here, too. And unlike the previous film, where it didn't have much CG to begin with, this movie definitely has more of it. And looking at it here, I also noticed that most of the Digimon's standard forms also looks terrible in CG, whenever they have to digivolve into their Champion levels. It looks so bad here, that it still makes me question why they have to use the terrible CG in this movie, when they could've just stuck with the digivolutions that's used for the Ultimate leveled Digimon. And again, I'm probably just beating a dead horse by mentioning how awful the CG is for these movies. However, I'm going to continue to beat this horse, until the CG gets improved. I understand that I'm probably asking for too much here, but there's still 3 movies to go, so maybe they'll have fixed the CG in those movies. It's rather doubtful, but, damn it, I want to have some hope.

Sound-mix is mixed rather well. Music, well, once more, the score is just there. There's nothing here that's ultimately memorable, but it's not painful to listen to. I will say that, at least, they got rid of that terrible opening song that plagued the first two movies, so, you know what? At least this movie's taking baby steps. So hopefully, the rest of the problems I mentioned will be sorted out in the later films.

Ultimately, guys, can I recommend "Digimon Adventure tri.: Confession"? I can, as long as you're willing to shut your brain off. Again, if you think about all of the issues I had for this movie, then you're probably going to end up hating this thing. But if you can turn your brain off, and enjoy it for what it is, then you're probably going to love this thing. Especially if you have been following this series of movies, so far. As for me, I'm gonna be honest, this is the weakest film of the "Digimon Adventure tri." series. Yeah sure, I did say that "Determination" didn't have much of a plot. But, at least there, I was able to enjoy that movie because it had that throwback to the first season of Digimon's writing. Here though, the logic issues held this thing back from being great. And that's a real shame, because I wanted to love this thing. I wanted it to be better than "Determination". Sadly though, that wasn't the case. And this movie just ended up being kind of a mess with it's logic issues and clunky writing. Now...I'm gonna go do something else. And I think I'm gonna go back and continue playing my copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D on my New Nintendo 3DS. Because I need to relax my brain with something different after watching this thing.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.

No comments:

Post a Comment